The report finds inspectors lack relevant experience and chronicles lengthy delays and factual inaccuracies in inspection reports.

Chief executive of The NHS Alliance, Sir Ciarán Devane, said: ‘Two years into the CQC's recovery, these findings show it still faces a worrying credibility gap that is – at times – undermining its essential work.'

While finding pockets of progress in terms of more stable relationships, better informal engagement, faster reporting and greater sector expertise reported by some, the report finds this is not yet the norm.

Just one in five (21%) believed the CQC was making changes that will improve its long-term performance as the regulator of care quality.

Other findings included:

• 13% agreed the benefits of their most recent CQC inspection justified the cost to their organisation, while 50% disagreed
• 38% said the CQC supported improvements in care – 31% disagreed
• almost two-thirds said the quality of inspections had not changed (46%) or deteriorated (19%). Three in ten (30%) had seen an improvement
• almost three quarters said the timeliness of inspection reports had either not changed (43%) or had deteriorated (30%). Just 19% had seen an improvement
• 38% rated CQC's understanding of local pressures as good while 33% said it was poor, including 13% as very poor.
• 27% of leaders agreed the current CQC approach reflected the needs of their sector, compared with 41% who disagreed.

Emily Miles, CQC chief executive, said: ‘There is clear recognition here of the value of regulation. I am pleased that many members who responded have felt the benefit of stronger relationships with named inspection leads and are positive about the improvements we are making to our approach. We are keen to continue working constructively with providers.

‘We know there are on-going concerns about the timeliness of our inspection reports, and that is something we are working hard to address. At the end of June, the average time taken to complete assessments of mental health and hospital services was 90 days, down from 95 days in the previous quarter.  And by October we had exceeded our target of 9,000 assessments for all sectors, in fact delivering 10,500.

‘Overall, we have increased the number of assessments carried out across all sectors by 50% since early last year and have cleared the registration backlog, processing over 4,000 applications since March 2026 while keeping pace with new applications received. We have further to go, but we are going in the right direction, and we are exploring more ways to highlight good practice that we observe on inspection.'